Der Teddy Bar
09-16-06, 02:03 AM
The principle behind the NYGM Feature Revisited is as we near the release of the NYGM TW 2.2, is to highlight important technical and game play aspects of the NYGM Tonnage War Mod that many new comers may not have seen or that the old salts missed during the busy hey days or have forgotten/take for granted since they have been there for so long.
The feature in the spotlight today is the NYGM AI Sensor Mod
NYGM Tonnage War v2.0 has improved three of the core game play AI sensors: hydrophone, sonar (ASDIC) and visual.
I have decided to break these up into smaller sections as I feel it will probably be a very long post trying to cover all the changes in one post.
NYGM AI Sensor Mod – Hydrophone & Sonar
There is a misconception that the allied hydrophone/sonar was next to useless. This point of view is often validated with the fact that few u-boats were sunk in the early years of the war. While the allies were overly optimistic on the hydrophone & sonar’s abilities they were far from useless. As many a damaged u-boat could testify too.
The lack of early war u-boat sinking’s was due to u-boats attacking at night on the surface and the practice of going very deep. Both of these practices work very well with the NYGM AI Sensor Mod.
While Observer is the author of the packaged hydrophone & sonar configuration for the NYGM AI Sensor Mod, the Sonar portion, which plays a very key role, was done by caspofungin.
Hydrophone Features
The first thing that a user will notice is that the ‘silent running’ Cone of Silence has gone. The ‘silent running’ Cone of Silence allowed a player to travel at a depth of 20 metres directly under an escort!
Like the AI Visual part of this mod, the sea state plays a part in how detectable your u-boat is. The higher the ‘mps’ i.e. the wind speed the less datable your u-boat is. So attacking in 80 metres of water when you have 0mps winds may be a worse situation than attacking in 40 metres of water in 7mps winds.
Escorts will have to be fairly close in order to detect your boat while on silent running, but very it is now possible. You may be forced to reduce speed from 2 knots while on silent running to around 1 knot to avoid hydrophone detection on silent running.
In general the escorts will be able to hear high speed submerged U-Boats at slightly greater than 3000 meters in perfect weather, and will be able to hear boats running at 3 knots (no silent running) just over 1500 meters in perfect weather. In perfect weather, you should try to keep escorts outside of 1000 meters, or reduce speed in order to avoid hydrophone detection.
ASDIC Features
Like the visual component, the Sonar works on your u-boats 'aspect' and a player should always endeavour to present to the enemy AI the smallest possible profile. The two aspects are bow on and bow off. Bow on covers about 60 degrees, or 330 to 030 and 150 to 210 degrees relative. Bow off is from 030 to 150 and 210 to 330 degrees relative.
We use realistic values as much as possible and within the limitations of the SH3 engine. There are some compromises, however while not 100% historically correct the overall end result works very well.
What this means to the player is that when an escort is transmitting, changing aspect will greatly help reduce the chance of detection. In the event you are detected, going deep and running at the escort to get under the ASDIC beam will help you avoid damage in an attack. Once the escort loses contact due to beam geometry, it will continue towards your last known position based on your predicted path. You can use this to your advantage to help avoid the attack. Once the escort passes over your last known position it will usually turn and start another ASDIC sweep even if it is not currently detecting you on the hydrophone.
The end result is a Cat & Mouse game with a formable enemy who must be respected. No longer can you enable the ‘silent running’ Cone of Silence and go read your favourite or surf the net.
Now you must use all your senses to ‘watch’ where the escort is going too and from and continually try and out manoeuvre them in your slow and cumbersome u-boat so as to reduce your chances of detection.
It will also require a change of mindset, a player needs to have a steely resolve and be prepared for engagements which may last for many real time hours.
Let the fun begin!
The feature in the spotlight today is the NYGM AI Sensor Mod
NYGM Tonnage War v2.0 has improved three of the core game play AI sensors: hydrophone, sonar (ASDIC) and visual.
I have decided to break these up into smaller sections as I feel it will probably be a very long post trying to cover all the changes in one post.
NYGM AI Sensor Mod – Hydrophone & Sonar
There is a misconception that the allied hydrophone/sonar was next to useless. This point of view is often validated with the fact that few u-boats were sunk in the early years of the war. While the allies were overly optimistic on the hydrophone & sonar’s abilities they were far from useless. As many a damaged u-boat could testify too.
The lack of early war u-boat sinking’s was due to u-boats attacking at night on the surface and the practice of going very deep. Both of these practices work very well with the NYGM AI Sensor Mod.
While Observer is the author of the packaged hydrophone & sonar configuration for the NYGM AI Sensor Mod, the Sonar portion, which plays a very key role, was done by caspofungin.
Hydrophone Features
The first thing that a user will notice is that the ‘silent running’ Cone of Silence has gone. The ‘silent running’ Cone of Silence allowed a player to travel at a depth of 20 metres directly under an escort!
Like the AI Visual part of this mod, the sea state plays a part in how detectable your u-boat is. The higher the ‘mps’ i.e. the wind speed the less datable your u-boat is. So attacking in 80 metres of water when you have 0mps winds may be a worse situation than attacking in 40 metres of water in 7mps winds.
Escorts will have to be fairly close in order to detect your boat while on silent running, but very it is now possible. You may be forced to reduce speed from 2 knots while on silent running to around 1 knot to avoid hydrophone detection on silent running.
In general the escorts will be able to hear high speed submerged U-Boats at slightly greater than 3000 meters in perfect weather, and will be able to hear boats running at 3 knots (no silent running) just over 1500 meters in perfect weather. In perfect weather, you should try to keep escorts outside of 1000 meters, or reduce speed in order to avoid hydrophone detection.
ASDIC Features
Like the visual component, the Sonar works on your u-boats 'aspect' and a player should always endeavour to present to the enemy AI the smallest possible profile. The two aspects are bow on and bow off. Bow on covers about 60 degrees, or 330 to 030 and 150 to 210 degrees relative. Bow off is from 030 to 150 and 210 to 330 degrees relative.
We use realistic values as much as possible and within the limitations of the SH3 engine. There are some compromises, however while not 100% historically correct the overall end result works very well.
What this means to the player is that when an escort is transmitting, changing aspect will greatly help reduce the chance of detection. In the event you are detected, going deep and running at the escort to get under the ASDIC beam will help you avoid damage in an attack. Once the escort loses contact due to beam geometry, it will continue towards your last known position based on your predicted path. You can use this to your advantage to help avoid the attack. Once the escort passes over your last known position it will usually turn and start another ASDIC sweep even if it is not currently detecting you on the hydrophone.
The end result is a Cat & Mouse game with a formable enemy who must be respected. No longer can you enable the ‘silent running’ Cone of Silence and go read your favourite or surf the net.
Now you must use all your senses to ‘watch’ where the escort is going too and from and continually try and out manoeuvre them in your slow and cumbersome u-boat so as to reduce your chances of detection.
It will also require a change of mindset, a player needs to have a steely resolve and be prepared for engagements which may last for many real time hours.
Let the fun begin!